About This Guide: This weekly groups guide, “A Light Has Dawned,” is designed as a companion to our Epiphany 2022 teaching series, fostering discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting. Join a group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
clearing the temple
Teaching Text: John 5:1-18
Some time later, there was a religious gathering of the Jews. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem there is a pool with five porches called Bethesda near the sheep gate. Inside these porches lay many sick people. Some were blind. Some could not walk. Some could not move their bodies. (*An angel of the Lord came at certain times and made the water move. All of them were waiting for it to move. Whoever got in the water first after it was moving was healed of whatever sickness he had.)
A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him lying there and knew the man had been sick a long time. Jesus said to him, “Would you like to be healed?” The sick man said, “Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is moving. While I am coming, another one gets in first.” Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your bed and walk.” At once the man was healed and picked up his bed and walked. This happened on the Day of Rest.
The Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Day of Rest. It is against the Law for you to carry your bed.” He said to them, “The Man Who healed me said to me, ‘Pick up your bed and walk.’ Then the Jews asked him, “What man said to you, ‘Pick up your bed and walk’?” The man who had been healed did not know Who He was. Jesus had gone away while many people were there.
Later Jesus found the man who had been healed in the house of God. He said to him, “Listen! You have been healed. Stop sinning or something worse will come to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus Who had healed him.
Because Jesus did these things on the Day of Rest, the Jews made it very hard for Him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is still working all the time so I am working also.” The Jews tried all the more to kill Him, not only because He had worked on the Day of Rest, but because He had also called God His Own Father. This made Him the same as God.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Waiting for God
Healing available through Jesus
Authority
Presence
Take a moment of silence and think about these questions:
To wait in silence is one of the most challenging practices in our day. Our lives are filled with noise. Internal and external distractions bombard our souls. Create a moment that you can just be quiet.
Sit in silence and notice.
Notice your body. The pains, the comfort.
Notice the state of your emotions and soul. Are you anxious? Worried? At peace?
Notice what thoughts come to you in the silence. Where does your attention drift to? Why is that?
To focus… imagine hearing the words of Jesus from this text spoken to you today:
“Do you want to be healed? My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Jesus has a ministry of healing.
A controversial miracle.
There is a lot that needs urgent repair in our world.
But what happens if we lose our capacity for joy and wonder and simple gratitude?
What kind of world is made by only angry critique?
It's the kind of a question that this story raises for us.
What if you spend your sabbath flying around making sure no one is breaking sabbath?
Have you entered the rest of God?
We can see it in three sections:
THE MAN
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” (John 5:1-7)
Look at how he answers Jesus’ question: do you want to get well?
He explains to Jesus why it hasn’t happened yet; Why he is alone and does have the help he needs; Why others have kept him out.
Even when the possibility of being healed is standing in front of him. The story he knows is one of despair.
Perhaps you can relate to being discipled by disappointment. There is healing we need that we haven’t gotten. There are deep longings of our life that feel like that are delayed (forever)
others have gotten in ahead of us
we have been left behind
we are one story of pain in many and we feel unseen
It is, of course, far easier, to languish in despair than to live in hope, for when we live in despair we don't have to do anything or risk anything. We can live lazily and shiftlessly with an untarnished reputation for practicality, current with the way things appear. It is fashionable to espouse the latest cynicism. If we live in hope, we go against the stream. (Eugene Peterson)
What places of faith have you lost hope for?
THE MIRACLE
Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him. John 5:3-6)
There was the noticing, then there was the entering of the man’s story.
We live in an attention economy - so many forces are vying for your precious attention. We live in a world of profound need. We settle for a life of distraction.
The need is too great, the crowd is too large, I have a lot to do already - so I bury my head in the sand of my smartphone.
Jesus notices and follows up. And he asks… do you want to get well?
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (John 5:8-9)
The word made flesh speaks the word of healing to this man. Jesus overcomes the obstacles that he had from experiencing healing: Kingdom life.
What obstacles would you mention prevent you from experiencing Kingdom life - if Jesus were to ask you this question? Do you keep telling yourself stories of disappointment to keep yourself from risking again?
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14)
He has authority in the healing and authority is calling him to a better life than the one he is living.
THE CONTROVERSY
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. (John 5:8-13)
Jesus isn’t upset that they want to keep the Sabbath. He seems to come back to the reality that they aren’t reading Torah well and they are missing love. Jesus runs the commando through the lens of love.
What does this mean for us?
Jesus is our healing - no matter how long we have waited.
Jesus is our rest - no matter how much the world needs our healing.
Jesus ministry is our ministry - the way we are invited to live in the world.
Jesus has come to show us the Kingdom of God - here it is.
the lame are made to walk
the sick are healed
the hungry are fed
the hounded by shame are forgiven
the exhausted find rest
the exile comes home
chaos becomes joy
Jesus asks: Do you want to get well? Are you willing to let go of the pain you are familiar with?
Do you know you are seen today? Do you know Jesus knows the details of your story?
Do you know Jesus is a healer today?
Do you need His Sabbath rest today?
Will you receive the recovered authority Jesus has for us - to speak his word.
Love
Read these notes and discuss the questions below:
Our ministry is the ministry of Jesus
What relationships around you need healing? Who around you needs noticing? Name the people before God in prayer.
Consider acts of love that could begin the healing process:
Send a text
Make a phone call
Write a letter
Take a meal
Consider a thoughtful gift
Pray for one another in the group.
